Games of Note: The 1918 World Series is ongoing, but an odd thing occurs: the teams threaten to strike if the winners and losers aren't guaranteed $2,500 and $1,000 each respectively. Someone had the foresight to remind the Red Sox and Cubs that this was an odd hard line stance to take at a time when the United States was at war, the reason the World Series was happening in September in the first place. When the threat of a strike vanished, Cubs' hurler Hippo Vaughn shutout the Sox, 3-0, in Game Five of the series, keeping the Cubs alive, but down three games to two.
We jump from 1918, when the "war to end war" was just getting going in the US, and land in 1938, when the sequel to that idealistically nicknamed war was already underway in Asia, with Europe's involvement now less than a year away. Jimmie Foxx goes deep twice against the Philadelphia Athletics, giving him his ninth game of the season in which he's hit at least a pair of homers. This breaks the record held by Babe Ruth and Hack Wilson, and on October 1, Foxx extends the new mark with another pair of homers, giving him 50 long balls on the season. This is just the eighth season with at least 50 homers in baseball history, and Foxx's second and last.
Transactions: The 1970 Red Sox and Brewers make a trade on this date, with Bobby Bolin sent to Boston in exchange for a player to be named later. Bolin is a 31-year-old right-handed pitcher, who split time between starting and relief with the San Francisco Giants and Milwaukee Brewers for the first 10 years of his career. Boston used him solely in relief, though: Bolin pitched in 118 games, tossing 162 innings, over the course of three-plus seasons with the Red Sox.
Bolin is better with Boston than anywhere else, posting a 115 ERA+ in his new role. He was released right before the start of the 1974 season, though, and didn't pitch professionally again.
Birthdays: Former Red Sox shortstop and utility player Nick Green turns 34 today. Green was with Boston in 2009, and hit all of .236/.303/.366 in 104 games. He took over as the team's shortstop for half of the year, with 81 of those contests coming at short, thanks to Julio Lugo absence due to knee surgery, and the subsequent trade that got him out of Boston. Eventually, Boston would acquire Alex Gonzalez to save them from Green at short.